Here's To Us
by chalantness
Summary: Prompt #144: glass.  /fluff warning/ Artemis left out the part of the party being with the people from her "extracurricular occupation," but whatever. A yes is a yes, and Paula is going to a co-worker's home to ring in the New Year anyway, so.


**Title: **_Here's To Us__  
><em>**Rating:** low T  
><strong>Word Count:<strong> 2,300+  
><strong>Characters:<strong> Wally/Artemis, everyone else  
><strong>Summary:<strong> Artemis left out the part of the party being with the people from her "extracurricular occupation," but whatever. A yes is a yes, and Paula is going to a co-worker's home to ring in the New Year anyway, so.  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> #144: glass  
><strong>Other Inspirations:<strong> well, this was inspired after watching the _New Year's Eve_ movie, if that counts

**Notes:** Fluff warning! Which leads to an out-of-character warning, too.

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><p><strong>Here's To Us<strong>

* * *

><p>She would feel bad for not being with her mother on New Year's Eve if she hadn't practically kicked Artemis out of the house when she admitted she got invited to a party.<p>

Paula is under this impression that her daughter is anti-social or something, so she does the complete opposite of most parents and encourages her teenaged daughter to be out as much as possible. Artemis left out the part of the party being with the people from her "extracurricular occupation," but whatever. A yes is a yes, and Paula is going to a co-worker's home to ring in the New Year anyway, so.

Naturally, having a New Year's party was all Megan's idea.

How she convinced Batman to let her host it at the Cave and fester into this big event that more than half of the League, including himself, was attending is beyond Artemis.

Bats must have a soft-spot a mile wide for her, or Robin had managed to convince his mentor into agreeing, or both. But everyone is pretty psyched and Artemis decided to help her best friend out by coming to the Cave an hour and a half earlier with a few others to help decorate and whatnot.

Megan has her arms around her the second she steps out of the transporter. "Thank you so much for helping!"

"No problem," Artemis laughs.

The Martian pulls back and looks at her attire. "Um, is that what you're wearing to the party?" she asks in that tone where she's trying not to be offensive.

Artemis pats the tote bag hooked over her shoulder. "Relax. I have my clothes right here. I just wanted to be comfortable while we set up."

"Smart," Megan compliments. "Can I do your hair?"

"Of course," she smiles. It's kind of their thing, since Megan likes to use her as a human Barbie doll. Artemis only lets it slide because it's Megan and she loves the girl enough to let her have her fun. "So, what would you like me to do first?"

"Can you put the confetti into balloons and blow them up? Everything's in the kitchen."

She arches an eyebrow at the request, but Megan is floating away before she can comment, so she walks down the hallway and into the kitchen. There are Party City bags on the kitchen island and a handheld air pump, and Artemis stashes her tote in a cabinet underneath to keep it out of the way before dumping the packets of balloons and shiny, silvery confetti out onto the granite countertop.

Megan left an index card with instructions written in her loopy cursive on how to do it, so Artemis just follows them, dumping the confetti into a giant bowl and holding the balloon over it as she spoons some in through the opening stretched out with her fingers. It's actually easier than it sounds, as long as she's careful not to spill when she's filling them.

She has four balloons completed when someone waltzes through the doorway.

"Oh, it's you."

Wally.

Except, there's this smile on his face that's been directed at her a lot more lately, telling her that he's not as disgusted by her presence as he's letting on.

Thanks to some freakish force of nature, they actually get along _better_ now. There are still huge bumps, but they can be in the same room and breathe the same air and not want to choke, and can talk to each other without wanting to kill the other. Sometimes she'll laugh at one of his jokes and he'll give her these compliments.

It's weird.

And it still kind of throws her off a little, but whatever. "What's up, Bay Watch?"

"I'm exhausted." He sets down the box he's holding and wipes a little sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand. "We've been clearing the hanger for like, two hours!"

"Why are you clearing the hanger?"

"She wants to do fireworks after the big countdown," he explains. "It's supposed to be clear tonight, so she wants to open the hanger and have the party there so we can launch all of them."

Artemis smiles and shakes her head. That sounds like a very _Megan_ idea, but it's exciting at the same time. She's probably the kind of festive spirit the whole League needs, pushing them into celebrating things in Earth culture that they usually wouldn't have made a big deal over.

"Alright, but I don't see why that's so tiring," she admits, smirking a little. "You could just turn them on and drive them out."

He rolls his eyes. "We _did_ do that! But she also wanted us to move furniture in there like a balcony, I guess, but she took Conner and Kaldur with her for something and I had to move everything in there by myself."

"Aw, you poor baby."

He glares at her and she laughs. "Whatever," he mutters, tearing the tape off of the top of the box.

"Why are you opening that?"

He gives her this look and folds back the cardboard flaps to pull out a slender, glass champagne flute, holding it up. "Megan ordered them for tonight, since all we've got are regular glasses." He turns it a little, as if inspecting it, and adds, "I mean, _we_ can't drink alcohol yet, so I'm not sure why she's making us use them too. Unless she thinks we can just drink apple cider and it'll look the same for pictures."

"Don't poke fun at Megan," Artemis scolds. "It's cute how picturesque she thinks."

He holds his hands up with a little shrug and sets the glass back down. "I never said it wasn't," he grins. "Want to lend a hand?"

"I'm kind of doing something," she reminds, gesturing to the balloon in her hand and the bowl of confetti underneath.

He frowns. "Fine. But if I break any of these, I'm going to say it's because my arms were tired after two hours of heavy lifting, and you were too lazy to help me."

She flicks confetti at his face.

... ...

A few hours later, she finds herself sitting on one of the plush couches Wally had moved into the hanger, her legs crossed as she chats with Zatanna, who is sitting on the arm beside her. Her blonde hair is in this fancy braid that's pushed over her shoulder, courtesy of Megan, and she's wearing black leggings and a glittery gold halter top with a dip in the back that Zatanna bought for her for tonight.

The night is clear like Wally said it was supposed to be, with millions of stars dotting the black sky and magically-suspended paper lanterns (Zatanna) giving them light.

"It's amazing how much can change in a year," Zatanna comments.

"No kidding," Artemis exhales in a laugh, looking around.

Almost every member of the League is present, filling the air with a blend of casual and excited conversations.

Orin has his arms around Mera, their baby cradled in her arms in a bundle of blankets, while the couple is talking with Carter and Shiera. Bruce is sitting on the couch with Selina perched on his lap as she is laughing with Iris, their hands feeling her pregnant tummy for the baby's kicks, and he actually looks content with himself as he and Barry watch their wives. Megan is standing with Kory and Kara, only partially into the conversation because her eyes keep glancing back at Conner every so often, no doubt checking up on him as he is talking with Clark. Diana is tucked under his arm as she quietly watches the pair, a wide smile on her face. Kaldur has a hand at Donna's waist as she is sitting on the arm of his chair, the couple talking casually with Tula and Garth. Roy lifts Dinah's hand in his to admire the diamond around her finger, and says something that causes them both to laugh, probably at the expense of Ollie considering how the blonde shakes his head at them shortly after.

A slightly-amused, "Hello ladies," interrupts her people-watching and she turns to see Dick and Wally walking over to them, two champagne flutes in Wally's hands.

"Care for a drink?" Wally offers.

Zatanna shakes her head. "Actually, I'm kind of hungry," she admits, linking her arm with Dick's. "Come with me to grab snacks?"

He smiles this sort of inside-joke kind of smile. "Sure thing, 'Tanna."

"Catch up with you two later," she says, winking at Artemis and flashing a grin.

Wally places the second drink in her hand before she has a chance to say something, and Dick and Zatanna have already disappeared. She wouldn't put it past the two of them, whether or not Wally was in on it, to totally have planned this. (One of the many reasons why they're so good together is because they share a love of messing with everyone.)

So she just sips from the glass and kind of smirks at Wally. "Weren't _you_ the one who was making fun of drinking apple cider from champagne flutes?"

He rolls his eyes. "Well, putting water in it would just be dumb."

She laughs, mostly because that sounded ridiculous and he looked somewhat serious about it.

"It's almost midnight."

She blinks at the abrupt change of his tone, and looks around. Then she remembers that there aren't exactly any wall clocks out here, so she turns back to Wally, and he holds up his wristwatch as if to prove it to her. There's this stupidly adorable smile on his like he's excited for the New Year, and it actually makes her smile back and begin to feel a little excited for the countdown herself.

"Did you make any New Year's resolutions?" he asks.

She arches an eyebrow. Why is he so hyper and friendly all of a sudden? "Yeah, of course. My mom and I make them every year."

"Yeah?" She nods and bites her lip. Seeing him so pleased that she shared a personal fact about herself shouldn't make her feel this happy, too. "I'll tell you one of mine if you tell me one of yours."

"Then tell me one."

He laughs. "I asked you first."

She rolls her eyes at his childish comeback, but tells him anyway. "I've decided I was going to be more honest to myself, and everyone else."

And like, she didn't know why she shared that particular one with him, especially since she could only imagine the many different ways he could make fun of her for it. It just kind of slipped out, but he is smiling at her a little wider now, like it's exactly what he was hoping to hear. Somewhere in the distance, Megan is talking about the noise, saying something about beginning the countdown soon.

"It's your turn," she reminds, fingers tightening around the stem of the champagne flute.

He's staring right into her eyes. "I decided I was going to eat healthier."

And she can't help the snort of laughter that comes after because, really, she wasn't expecting that at all. He doesn't seem offended by it, though, since he looks amused as he watches her laugh. When she catches her breath, she asks, "Why _that_, of all things?"

"Because!" he replies, "I eat _a lot_ and my body deserves better, right? Isn't that how it's supposed to go?"

"You have a crazy-fast metabolism, Wally. Your body probably _needs_ all of that unhealthy crap because it can actually burn everything off. And besides, you look perfectly fine."

It takes her half a second to realize what she just said.

_Crap._

Wally's smile is fading, his eyes widening a little, and she actually feels heat rise to her cheeks. She _hates_ blushing.

And she doesn't even notice that her mind is racing, mentally predicting the thousands of things he could say to that, until he asks her in this soft voice, "Want to hear another one of mine?" and she can't bring herself to say anything because she was expecting teasing that never came. He waits for her to respond, and continues when she doesn't. "I'm going to find my spitfire."

Her eyebrows pull together.

In her peripheral, she sees Dick standing with an arm around Zatanna, their free hands pushing a confetti-filled balloon into the air, causing dozens of other balloons to float up around them.

"Remember back when you first joined, and we had that whole Dr. Fate incident?" She nods wordlessly. "Well, it's kind of a long story, but Kent Nelson was telling me about finding my spitfire to keep me in line or something, and I didn't really get what he meant for a while. But I realized that he was right, and that I needed someone in my life to like, call my out on my crap and be a better influence on me."

She has no idea what he's talking about.

"How are you going to find a girl within the next _year?_" She has to shout over the chorus of voices. "She could be anywhere!"

"Oh, I've already found her," he says. "Now all I have to do is _tell_ her that she's my spitfire."

"Wally, what are you—"

But he has a hand on the small of her back as he's slanting his lips over hers, pulling her against his chest. They're a second early (Wally's always been impatient), but it works out because their champagne flutes slip from their hands and shatter at the exact second the balloons are popping and everyone is exclaiming, "_Happy New Year!_" There's cheering in her ears and confetti showering down on them, but all she can really comprehend is how desperately Wally is kissing her and how she just doesn't want to stop.

They only come up from air when she steps back and her heels slide on the shards of glass, and he catches her before she hits the ground.

"Meg's not going to be too thrilled we broke her glasses," he says.

She laughs and pushes her hands through his hair, bringing their lips back together. They'll buy her new ones later.


End file.
